Most of the rules are straightforward and clear, but after a quick mock combat I have a few questions (I have searched but can't find answers):

There is no mention of a backstab ability, beyond the +4 attacking from behind. In many games a thief gets double damage or higher with a successful backstab. Has anyone houseruled this?

The rules state that the order of events for combat is that magic and missile weapons go first. I had a Magic User in combat with a thug - the way I did it was like this: Spell is cast and takes effect (dependent on roll), then the Thug (if they are still alive) gets to attack. Both the Thug and the Magic User make combat rolls. If the Thug wins they do damage, if the Magic User wins they don't do damage as they have already cast a spell. Is that right?

The Strongarm skills states

When using any brawling or any hand weapon, the Hero adds +1 to the damage roll.

. Does this mean +1 to the number rolled on the d6, or +1 to the actual damage?

Hellbrandt wrote:There is no mention of a backstab ability, beyond the +4 attacking from behind. In many games a thief gets double damage or higher with a successful backstab. Has anyone houseruled this?

If the character succeeded in remaining hidden (opposed roll, page 55) I consider it an attack with surprise, which is a much more dangerous +6 to attack and +2 to the damage roll (page 64). If you wanted to make it even more dangerous you could also give it a better chance of being a critical hit.

Hellbrandt wrote:The rules state that the order of events for combat is that magic and missile weapons go first. I had a Magic User in combat with a thug - the way I did it was like this: Spell is cast and takes effect (dependent on roll), then the Thug (if they are still alive) gets to attack. Both the Thug and the Magic User make combat rolls. If the Thug wins they do damage, if the Magic User wins they don't do damage as they have already cast a spell. Is that right?

Yep the magic user is only rolling defensively. If you had a warrior against two others they'd likewise just be defending against the second one. Keep in mind the magic user gets a penalty to the casting roll in melee or if targeted with missiles (page 69 or 81, the list on 72 is incomplete).

Hellbrandt wrote:The Strongarm skills states "When using any brawling or any hand weapon, the Hero adds +1 to the damage roll". Does this mean +1 to the number rolled on the d6, or +1 to the actual damage?

The first one, when it means the second it'll say something like "adds +1 to the damage result". But in this case that makes the benefit a little weak for a talent, so +1 to the result might be better (like with Armour Training).

No problem, AFF2 does do some things a bit differently. Rolling in combat when you're not attacking is a bit unusual in RPGs but makes complete sense when you think about it. If you're experienced in combat then you should be harder to hit. Most games represent that with hit points that increase rapidly with experience. But of course that's a very indirect way to do it, you have the opponents hitting but then it not having much effect (as a % of the total). They should be harder to hit but then if they are it's a real hit.

To be fair AFF2 does that a bit as well, unless you get a critical it takes 5 or 6 sword hits to drop even a starting character. You can look on that as the character becoming fatigued from the force of blows, bruises and cuts, but really it's that games where your PC dies too suddenly aren't much fun. The difference is STAMINA can about double from a starting PC to maximum while hit points in most games can go up by something like 20 times.

One final question (hopefully!) for now, regarding movement. The Fleet Footed talent (p31) says a hero can move three metres in combat rather than the usual two, while Moving on p48 says a Hero can be assumed to move 10 metres per combat round.

Which is it, 2m or 10m? If it's 10m (as I suspect) does Fleet Footed allow the hero to move 15m per round?

In my softcover AFF2 rulebook page 48 says 2m/round and so does the PDF, but my hardcover says 10m/round (yes I'm enough of an AFF tragic I have two copies of the rulebook, if the wife ever finds out I'm toast). Which makes sense depends how long an AFF round is and I'm not sure it says anywhere. I play pretty loose with time and distance so I'd never even noticed.

You can move a couple of meters a second so 2m/round would make the round only 1 second long. That's probably why it's been changed to 10m and then that hasn't also made it into Fleetfooted. 10m/round would make it a 5 sec round which for me is a good length, I always thought the 10 sec round used in a lot of games is too long. Think we need Graham to weigh in on this one.

Did a bit more looking into this and seems an average person jogs at about 3.7m/s and sprinting speed is about twice that. But adventurers are usually carrying a lot more than your typical jogger. It might be good to have a table that gave different m/round depending on encumbrance, but keeping it simple in typical AFF fashion 10m/round sounds okay assuming the round's no more than 5 seconds long.

There'd also be a difference in combat to running in the clear. It's mostly from a stationary start with no momentum. Also a melee can be crowded, you're not always going to be able to move in a straight line. So my opinion is it'd be fair the Director rules movement is halved within a melee.

The Fleet Footed talent should probably just say combat movement is 50% faster like it does for daily travel, then it works whatever speeds you use.

Just for something to compare to, old school B/X and BECMI D&D used (adjusted for its 10 sec round):

4 ft/s in combat
2 ft/s in combat if armoured
12 ft/s running and not in combat
6 ft/s running and not in combat if armoured
You either moved or you attacked, although a web search showed a rule was added later that you could move 5 feet and still attack.

That armoured running speed of 6ft/s matches the AFF 10m/round (30ft / 5 secs = 6ft/s). Not really sure why D&D combat speed was only a third of your running speed (and this isn't just within a melee but closing too). I can see you wouldn't run full speed into combat, you'd want to control your momentum, be able to stop or change direction if you needed to. But I'm okay with using one speed as long as the way's clear, to keep it simple.

In AFF I like to leave room for missiles and especially thrown missiles while closing. So while I don't allow movement and melee in the one round, I do allow movement and a missile attack at -1 for the "Firer moving" modifier (page 59). That works best with something like an axe or spear, a bow you have to drop to the ground to draw a melee weapon without losing a round. Hardly anyone uses thrown weapons unless you allow that attack while closing.